


I Never Promised You My Love, Darling

by AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Drama, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, dark&twisty, re-post from 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-11 03:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17439068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell/pseuds/AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell
Summary: When she gets home at night she always finds him in the baby’s room, holding Nicholas in his arms while he tells him fairy tales. Most nights she goes straight to her own bed, but sometimes she sits down on the floor and listens to Patrick’s voice.Her favorite tale becomes The Beauty and The Beast.If her life were a fairytale, it would be this one. Only Patrick would be The Beauty and she would be The Beast.





	I Never Promised You My Love, Darling

**Author's Note:**

> And a BIG special thank you goes to the wonderful clairebare for beta reading!

**I Never Promised You My Love, Darling**

**.**

**.**

When Teresa was little, her mother read her fairy tales. Teresa hated them, but she never dared to tell her mother because she didn’t want to make her sad. She knew her mother loved the tales from the old book her grandmother gave her.

So she would lie in bed and listen to her mother when she read about Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White and The Beauty and The Beast. About Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, The Frog King and Rumpelstiltskin. When Teresa was eight she knew them by heart.

And hated them with a passion.

She couldn’t believe that anyone would believe that those people lived happily ever after. Teresa knew that happy endings didn’t exist. Not in her world. Not at home and not in her neighborhood.

Which woman would be dumb enough to sit in a tower and hope a prince would come to save her like Rapunzel did? She couldn’t believe that Snow White could have been so stupid to eat that apple when it was so obvious that it had come from the Evil Queen. And she never understood why Red Riding Hood didn’t know it was the Wolf right from the start.

All those women were dumb. Most of them just waiting for the prince to ride in and save the day. Teresa was used to looking after herself, she didn’t need a guy to come an save her.

She never understood why Hansel and Gretel went back home to her father. She couldn’t stop wondering why they would have been so foolish. They should have known better. Should have known their father didn’t deserve their forgivness anyway.

One morning, Teresa stole the book from her mother’s drawer and stashed it in a dumpster on her way to school. Her mother never asked if she took it, but sometimes when Teresa looked her in the eye she saw that she knew.

She should have felt guilty for doing something cruel like that to her own mother but she didn’t.

It was about time that her mother stopped believing in fairytales.

.

Agent Fisher shows up in her office in Cannon River and asks her if she’s got something better to do than come with her. Teresa wants to tell her yes. Because it makes her feel pathetic that the answer is no.

She feels like one of those goddamn fairytale characters, one of those she despised so much as a kid. She’s been waiting like Rapunzel in her tower for the prince to come and save her. It’s not the prince himself, no. But he’s the one behind it and despite her better judgement, she takes the next flight to Texas.

Working with Jane again is weird. She smiles and giggles, like one of those lovesick teenage girls she used to hate when she was in high school. She’s not Jane’s boss anymore and even though they want her to keep an eye on him, she’s not responsible if something goes wrong.

That makes her much happier then she ever thought she could be. Jane has changed too. He reminds her of the princes in those fairytales.

In those tales, the princes became murderers, too. But always for the greater good. And Jane did it for the same reasons, didn’t he? So it’s fine to forget about it and move on.

When they make her the job offer she doesn’t think twice before she tells them yes. Like Hansel and Gretel running straight back home again.

.

She sells her house in Washington State and a week later she finds herself in a little apartment in Texas, the rooms filled with her unpacked moving boxes.

But things aren’t as bright as they seemed from the distance. She should have known better.

Teresa gets a badge and a gun, but they won’t let her do much. It’s obvious that she got the job only because of Jane. She should have realized that a lot sooner.

She’s supposed to look after Jane, while her FBI colleagues take down the bad guys. And she feels like a goddamn babysitter, but she keeps quiet. Abbott won’t listen to her anyway.

The guy they’re chasing is a pervert, one of the worst kind and the whole case makes her sick just thinking about it.

They’re hiding on the street. Jane’s in the SUV playing with his phone, while she leans against the car and stares into the dark. That’s the only reason she spots him.

He shows up out of nowhere, running through the yard and down the street. Before she knows what she’s doing she follows him. She’s faster and has him tackled to the ground in seconds.

She has his hands against his back. When she turns him around, their eyes meet. It’s just a second, but it’s enough to see the monster he’s hiding.

And she knows they won’t find enough evidence to keep him to jail, in the end he will walk. With that handsome face of his, looking like a twelve year old innocent boy. But she knows he isn’t.

She pulls the trigger, once, twice. While his blood soaks the earth, relief rushes through her body. She’s doing the right thing. Killing the dragon to take over the kingdom.

When she turns around, there’s Jane. Staring at her with a terrified expression on his pale face. And she wonders if he’s about to pass out.

An hour later she sits in Abbott’s office and tells him it was self defense, that the guy was about to shoot her. Jane confirms it and Abbott doesn’t ask again.

When Jane comes to her apartment that night, she’s doing the dishes. He stands in the doorframe of the kitchen and asks her why she did it. She looks up and meets his eyes in the reflection of the windowpane.

„It was self defense, Jane. I did what I had to do.“

He never brings it up again and Teresa wonders if he’s afraid of her or for her.

.

Jane asks her out for a date, a real date and Teresa says yes because she doesn’t know how to tell him no.

It’s a nice restaurant, she wears a short black dress and he looks more handsome than ever. His eyes sparkling with joy and love. Prince Charming all the way.

He tells her to call him Patrick and she promises she will.

She’s sits across from him, while he talks. She nods from time to time to keep him talking, while she’s thinking about her life. About her career and how she ended up there at this table with him.

Things have gone horribly wrong, haven’t they?

She thinks about Greg. Wonders if she should have married him. Wonders if she should have given birth to four kids, always wishing for a fifth like her mother.

Maybe Greg would have become a drunk, too. And maybe she would have ended up dead on a Chicago street in a cold winter night as well.

Patrick startles her when he asks if she’s alright. She blinks once, twice. Realizing she can’t do this. She always hated fairytales.

She tells him she’s sorry, gets up and flees the restaurant.

.

One night they cross the last bridge between them. Teresa sits on the couch beside him and they talk about their latest case when Patrick leans over to kiss her.

For a moment she’s stunned. And he looks at her like he’s waiting for her to turn into a princess.

She stares at him while he mumbles something that sounds like sorry and starts to get up. That’s when she grabs the collar of his button down shirt and pulls him back.

Patrick’s tea cup hits the floor and shatters to pieces, while she crushes her lips against his.

She never imagined their first time like this and surely not on the couch in the FBI bullpen after midnight. She straddles him, his hands against her back while she pulls at his zipper.

He doesn’t stop her and she doesn’t want him to. Teresa briefly wonders about security cameras, but it’s not enough to make her stop.

There’s nothing romantic or sweet about it. There isn’t a fairy tale she could compare it with. She’s not a fucking princess. It’s rushed, greedy and needy and they’re done in a few minutes.

She straightens her clothes first. Tells him she’s sorry. Grabs her coat and her bag and leaves. She’s not even sure what she’s apologizing for.

.

They just want to ask some questions. But their suspect obviously has other plans and when the gunfire starts it’s already too late.

Like the fine agent Teresa is, she throws herself in front of Patrick. To make sure he’s safe.

The bullet hits her chest and when she looks down her blouse is turning crimson. When she falls to the ground, her head hits the pavement and she sees stars. Pain spreading through her body and burning like fire in her veins.

Patrick hovers over her. Saying her name. His new jacket pressed against the wound on her chest and a terrified look on his face. He tells her to stay awake, begs her to fight while Agent Fischer barks orders in her phone.

But there’s something else. Something bright and warm. An angelic voice whispering her name. Telling her to let go. That’s when her sight gets blurry.

She hears a siren wail in the distance. Her body goes numb. She can’t help but smile.

.

She wakes up in a hospital attached to a heart monitor. The whole room filled with flowers and Patrick waiting at her side. The Prince who kissed Sleeping Beauty awake.

He’s not the one who needs to be saved anymore. Somewhere along the line they switched places and she didn’t realize it.

„How are you feeling?“ he asks her and for a moment she wonders if she should tell him the truth. That just like him a few years ago, she’s doesn’t want to be saved.

The words are ready to spill, lingering on her lips like the poison in Snow White’s apple. Ready to ruin everything they’ve ever had.

„I’m fine,“ she tells him. Sure he doesn’t even realize she’s lying.

Things really have changed.

.

Two weeks later she’s back at work.

She stands in the hallway, listens to the office noise around her. Stares at her colleagues gathered at their desks, wearing black suits and black office dresses. And she feels like screaming.

It’s Patrick who shows up out of nowhere. Hands her a cup of coffee and asks her if she wants to grab some lunch.

She nods. And smiles. And tells him yes.

Thinking and wishing she had died.

.

She starts sleeping with him on a regular basis. He wants to go out with her too and sometimes she agrees. Trying to ignore the fact that they don’t share the same interests.

When she finds herself throwing up every morning for five days in a row, she knows she’s pregnant. And Jane knows, too.

He makes her go and see a doctor and she feels so sick that she agrees.

The doctor confirms it and Teresa wants to die. She can’t be a mother and she doesn’t want to.

But Patrick begs her to keep the baby. He goes down on his knees and asks her to marry him the same night. Promises her the world, everything she wants and everything she doesn’t.

He looks so full of hope, she can’t say no. And she feels like Cinderella, the poor little girl from Chicago getting married to the blond prince.

They get married in the city hall, just the two of them. She’s wearing a decent black dress instead of a white one. And he lets her.

Patrick wants to buy them a house, but Teresa convinces him to buy a big apartment instead. She never wanted to have a house. Never wanted to be one of those women.

She gets herself a black Mercedes Coupe while Patrick buys a family van for himself. And she just rolls her eyes at him when he tells her he wants to have a dog, too.

Teresa gives birth to a little baby boy with dark hair and emerald green eyes at the end of November. They call him Nicholas and Jane is the happiest person alive. He stays home, while she goes back to work taking down the bad guys.

When she gets home at night she always finds him in the baby’s room, holding Nicholas in his arms while he tells him fairy tales. Most nights she goes straight to her own bed, but sometimes she sits down on the floor and listens to Patrick’s voice.

Her favorite tale becomes The Beauty and The Beast.

If her life were a fairytale, it would be this one. Only Patrick would be The Beauty and she would be The Beast.

**.**

**.**


End file.
